This paper appraises aspects of Anglo-American and Chinese concepts of invention from a historical perspective. It then describes the results of 70 third-year Taiwanese English majors' responses to a Likert scale questionnaire that sought their reaction to Anglo-American strategies of invention in English academic writing. It singles out two randomly selected students' responses to the questionnaire to exemplify the importance of individual variation. Students chose their most preferred techniques for composition design from 26 idea-generating activities that are popular in English-as-a-Second-Language/English-as-a-Foreign-Language writing textbooks. The results suggest that most third-year students are aware of the importance of a systematic approach to idea creation in academic writing, but they prefer to initiate their discovery processes in essay writing with such activities as brainstorming, free writing, and use of their imaginations rather than by more traditional strategies such as outlining or library research. The study discusses implications for Anglo-American and Chinese contrastive rhetoric. (Contains 27 references.) (SM)

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